Great day out with Lawrence, Alex, Tobae, Tim and Khanh- great peeps. Though I'm not sure why this route gets so much hype. Highlight was the bivy cave S under summit- even protected from wind by snow for water- sleeps 6. I'd love to see an overview of summitblock since I have done it a couple ways now. We descended East ridge trying to get to Sherpa WR but pulled the plug. Tired and complex ridge.

Very good weather, but route finding proved to be a challenge. We summited at 8:00PM, took a couple of pictures and started down. Lots of bivy sites. Picked one at about 8,000 feet just before dark. Not to bad, but memorable and not planned. Stars and city lights were our company all night. Descended Cascadian.

Camped at Ingalls Pass, which turned out to be a bit far from the West Ridge (we aren't the earliest risers or fastest hikers), especially since we did the full West Ridge instead of the second gully. Got to the summit at 6. Bivied in the trees at 7000 ft in the Cascadian Couloir.

Left my car at 4pm and bivied near Ingalls Lake. About an hour hike to the second couloir. Fun climbing with fantastic views of the entire range. I chose the fifth class section of the Long John section on account that the fourth class side looked loose and dirty. Found the fixed pin on the summit block. The summit pyramid having the best, most exposed and exciting climbing and routefinding. Cascadian descent and back to the car at 5pm.

I wrote a very detailed trip report for my own climbing journal after my ascent. I posted it as a .pdf to my personal website. I think anyone considering climbing the West Ridge or Stuart will find it very useful. Check it out: